Colt Walker

The Colt Walker, sometimes known as the Walker Colt, is a single-action black powder cap-and-ball revolver. The Colt Walker was the result of a collaboration between American firearms inventor Samuel Colt and Texas Ranger Captain Samuel Hamilton Walker. Captain Walker had acquired some of the first Colt revolvers produced during the Seminole War, and saw first-hand how effective they could be as his 15-man unit defeated a larger force of 70 Comanches in Texas. Walker wanted to order Colt revolvers for use by the Rangers in the Mexican–American War, and traveled to New York City in search of Colt. He met Colt in a gunsmith's shop on January 4, 1847, and ordered 1000 revolvers. The design would be based on the earlier Colt Patterson revolver, with some changes requested by Walker: the new revolvers would have to hold 6 shots instead of 5, have enough power to kill either a human or a horse with a single shot, and be quicker to reload. In order to produce the 1000 revolvers requested by Walker, Colt hired independent firearms manufacturer Eli Whitney Jr. to make his guns. Like the earlier Colt Patterson revolver it was based on, the Colt Walker featured a revolving cylinder holding six charges of black powder behind six bullets. The gun holds a powder charge of 60 grains (3.9 g) in each chamber, more than twice what a typical black powder revolver holds. It weighs 4+1⁄2 pounds (2 kg) unloaded, has a 9-inch (230 mm) barrel, and fires a .44 caliber (0.454 in/11.5 mm diameter) lead projectile (could be either a conical and round ball).[2] The Walker design was not without its shortcomings. In addition to its large size and weight, problems with the Walker included ruptured cylinders after firing. This has been attributed to primitive metallurgy, soldiers allowing powder to spill across the mouths of the chambers, and even loading the original conical bullets backwards into the chambers. Under 300 of the original 1,000 revolvers were returned for repair due to a ruptured cylinder. Lard was loaded into the mouths of the cylinders on top of each bullet after loading to prevent the spark from igniting all chambers at once, a practice which continues to this day among black-powder revolver shooters. In addition, although each chamber held 60 grains of powder, Colt recommended no more than 50 grains in each. Following the completion of Walker's original 1000 unit order, Colt had Whitney produce an extra 100 revolvers for private sales and promotional gifts. With the money he made from the sales of the Walker pistols and a loan from his cousin Elisha Colt, Colt bought the machinery and tooling from Whitney Jr. to build his own factory, establishing the Colt's Patent Fire-Arms Manufacturing Company factory at Hartford, Connecticut. Modern replicas chambered in the .45 black powder Magnum Wildcat cartridge have been offered by the Colt Blackpowder shop, Cimarron Firearms, Armi San Marco, and Uberti Firearms.